Her Sister's Boyfriend

27

James's POV:

I see Riley coming out from the other side of the hotel room since the guys and girls had been separated onto different areas so girls were on East side and guys on West and that just so happened to occur for every team here at Internationals. Even though it was almost 3 in the morning, the weather really wasn't that cold and was more just humid, well it was for me, but Riley looked freezing despite the tracksuit she had on.

When she looks up and sees me, her eyes dart around as she licks her bottom lip before walking over, arms folded over her chest and shoulders raised. She comes closer towards me but without any emotion expressed on her face and I notice the way she was biting her bottom lip and we walk towards the pool in silence. It's not that we had to be by the pool exactly but was just somewhere peaceful and away from everything else. We both end up sitting on two loungers except instead of sitting on them properly, we were sat on them sideways so that we were facing each other, sitting in the darkness with the only light being from the moon and a bright yellow one shining from the direction of the hotel.

I reach over to hold her hands and she doesn't let go but doesn't look at me either, we both just stay silent, rubbing my thumbs over the back of her palms and looking at her even if she wasn't doing the same. And as I did, I just couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looks, even if it was the middle of the night.

"The only reason I did it is because I wasn't ready for it. Not because I don't trust you," she says, finally lifting her gaze from the ground to look at me. "And I was going to tell you but I only did it today. You can't have expected me to-"

"I wasn't expecting you to do anything," I cut her off, my voice soft and calm. "Which is why I was so surprised when you told me because I wasn't expecting you to actually go through with it. I thought it was something you wanted."

"Even if it was, it wouldn't work. I don't even think this is going to work," she removes one hand out of mine to move her hand back and forth in the gap between the two of us. "I love you. But all we're going to end up ever doing is hurt each other. You're going to uni, I'm not. You're going to move on with your life when you go and I possibly will too. We'll just be trying to force things to work even though we know they're not going to." She stares at me, waiting for me to respond as her bottom lip quivered from the bitter cold, her knees shaking. I place my hand over the top of it.

"I gave up on University, Ri," I tell her after a while.

"What?"

"I thought you really were going to have our baby. So I gave up on uni already," I tell her. "I love you and I can't stand the thought of leaving you to go halfway across the world. You mean way too much to me." She sighs.

"Why, James... Why?" she says, shaking her head but leaning forward to hug me, wrapping her arms right the way around my neck. "Why did you fall for me so hard?" she whispers into my ear as I place my hands on her back, holding her close to me.

"Because you're mine and you always have been."

... (three days later)

Riley's POV:

I stood on the wing of the stage with Amanda, Emily and Kate, watching the team dance to Let's Dance Tonight. I feel so left out not being on that stage. I should be there, maybe even getting to do partner work with James but instead he's doing it with Michelle and she was originally meant to be the alternate but now I am instead and I'm not even pregnant anymore. It feels like I'm here for no reason at all and as much as I want to tell Kate that I'm okay to dance, Michelle' still one of my closest friends despite everything and I know how much this means to her, even if it could possibly mean more to me.

The dance was amazing, obviously, and in my opinion it's probably one of the best dances we've ever choregraphed as a whole team but I can't help but feel jealous that Michelle's on there and I'm not. 

I link arms with Amanda as I cross my fingers whilst we impatiently wait to hear the results, our team stood on stage beside England, Ella's team. It's weird because Ella and I were friends until she caught James and I and then started blackmailing us for whatever goddamn reason. 

James was stood closest to the wing and so he tilts his head to the side the slightest and smiles at me lightly to which I do back.

"And the team moving forward to the final round is... The Next Step!" 

I let out a sigh of relief before turning around and hugging Amanda then Kate, ignoring Emily. I don't see why I should bother to be nice to her when she wants hardly anything to do with me anymore.

We allow the team to have their own celebration on stage for a few moments but as soon as they come back, I jump up onto James, wrapping my arms and legs around his upper, muscular body as he places his hands on my back, chuckling and kissing me on the forehead. "We are so winning this," I say, rubbing my nose against his and smiling. He grins, nodding before kissing my lips.